Philosophy
by sakicchi
Summary: "Levi... Would you ever fall in love?" /Canonverse Reincarnation AU. Rivetra.
1. Idealism

Disclaimer: I don't own Shingeki no Kyojin.

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Idealism

They lie huddled together, cramped in a single-person bed, and wouldn't have it any other way.

Her head is tucked safely between his sharp jawline and bony shoulder and she draws lazy shapes and patterns on his chest with a single finger. She can feel his lips caressing the crown of her skull and she's sure he's focused on the rays of moonlight streaming in through the window.

"Levi," she calls his name, voice light and laced with slight traces of sleepiness, and she can feel the questioning hum from his throat, "Would you ever fall in love?"

"No." is his firm answer and she understands the reason perfectly. She lets her lips curve up a little.

"Then, what is _this_?"

"You tell me."

A tiny laugh dances on her tongue. "Well," she begins, "_This_ is as close as we can be without being too close."

His arm wrapped around her waist pulls her in just a little closer and she knows she gave the right answer. "It's hard to be _something_ when one or both of us may die in the next hour, day, week, huh? We can't be _anything_ without heartbreak." She hates to be pessimistic, but how can one not be with such a threat in their lives?

"Levi?" She beacons his name again, "If we lived in a better world, better than within the Inner Walls, with no fear of immediate death, would you fall in love?"

"... Maybe. It would only be natural," is his delayed response, "If I were an average guy, with an average history, and an average life, sure."

Her smile grows a little wider, "So, in that _ideal_ world, Levi," she returns to languidly tracing shapes into his chest, "Would you make _this_ something?"

"In a heartbeat." is his immediate reply. His free hand gently grasps hers, effectively halting her doodling. He traces his fingers over hers, kneading her knuckles and landing on the slender digit next to her pinkie.

"In that _ideal_ world, Petra," his lips haven't left the top of her head, "This finger would have a ring on it."

Her smile is a grin reaching from ear to ear, and hand in hand, they sleep.

Yet, however close they are, they never keep their hopes up for something more. They never try with the little time they have. They never exchange those three important, special words.

And when he sees her body limp against the tree; when he sees her corpse tossed out of the cart mindlessly; when her father speaks cheerfully and unknowing with him, about fondness, about marriage, about _her_; he regrets it. He regrets it all.


	2. Realism

Disclaimer: I don't own Shingeki no Kyojin.

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Realism

They lie closer together than ever, clamped onto each other in a bed already meant for two, and still wouldn't have it any other way.

Her head is tucked again between his jawline and shoulder; still sharp, still bony. His lips are pressed to a familiar spot on the crown of her head and, this time, she's sure he's focused on the blaring red numbers of the clock, reading two o'nine in the morning.

"Well, Levi," His name rolls off her tongue just right, like it always did and will, "We made it. And you're as average as you said you'd be."

He answers with miffed snort and she feels the low rumble of a laugh in his throat. She joins in with a giggle, tracing the same shapes and patterns she did before onto his chest.

He is an average guy—nothing like he used to be—working an average office job, living an overall average life and she's the only extraordinary part of it all, although she denies it. She herself is working an average position as a History teacher, with the average routine of running across the street and down the block to the small coffee shop, where they collided again one day.

He was surprised, and his eyes gave it away, when he saw the same dark blonde hair and hazel eyes that he used to before she was taken away from him in that cruel, unforgiving world. She looked at him with the same astonishment before taking a few hesitant steps towards him. Amber eyes bore into coal as she whispered, "Captain?"

"I finally found you." He mumbles after a while and his lips burrow further into her hair. His hand firmly holds onto hers, stopping her invisible drawing once again, just to make sure she wouldn't slip away again, that she is there, that she is _real_. "It wasn't for _nothing_."

"No, Levi," is her light reply and she snuggles closer with assurance, "It was for _something_. That_ ideal_ world is _real_ and we made it."

"Yeah… We made it, Petra."

Her grin reaches her eyes and he smiles for the first time since he was a child, both in this world and the last; those so many years, decades, centuries ago.

His fingers move from smoothing over her knuckles and drift to ghost over her ring finger, where an average (_extraordinary_) gold band fits perfectly.


End file.
